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One clings to a bygone era in defining the sports car as a small, lightweight open two-seater with minimum creature comfort balancing a maximum of driver engagement and agile handling. Sports cars, like everything else on the road, get more comfortable and sophisticated over time. Consider these three.

Volvo president Gunnar Engellau killed off the P1900 fiber-glass two-seat convertible in 1956 after 68 copies (Motor Trend Classic, March/April 2006), just in time for the launch of the new Amazon sedan and wagon. The Amazon proved an important step, with global sales up from 31,260 in 1956 to 71,712 in 1959.

Consultant Helmer Petterson worked with Engellau to begin developing the P1900’s successor in 1957. Engelau tried to contract with Ghia for design work. Bjorn-Eric Lindh wrote in “Volvo, the Cars, from the 1920s to 1980s” that “Ghia declined the assignment on the grounds that they were doing similar work for a competitor…referring it to the Frua company” of Turin. Frua built three prototypes between 1957 and 1958, though Engellau “appears to have been greatly irritated to learn [the design] was the work of Petterson’s son,” Pelle. As with Ghia for design work, Karmann rebuffed Volvo for assembly, likely because rival Volkswagen was a client. Volvo turned to Pressed Steel Company for body stampings from Scotland and Jensen Motors in West Bromwich for assembly, and dropped in its new, 100-hp (SAE) 1780cc B18B engine. The P1800 reached Swedish showrooms in May 1961, then went on sale in the U.S. as a 1962 model, for $3995. It was $1900 cheaper than Jaguar‘s E-Type. Volvo’s 122S was $2495-$2595.

Volvo expanded its Gothenburg production and renamed the car the 1800S (for Sweden) when it brought assembly in-house in 1963. Continuous improvement over the car’s dozen-year run included more comfortable front seats with adjustable backrests and flip-down rear seats in ’63, engine modifications that increased horsepower to 115, new side chrome strips that made the tailfins appear more subtle for ’67, and a new 2.0-liter four with a 9.5:1 compression ratio, exhaust emission control, and SU or Zenith carburetors for 1969. Bosch electronic fuel injection replaced the carburetor for 1970, helping the car, rebadged 1800E, to meet strict new U.S. emissions requirements. Horsepower was increased to 130. Certified sommelier Amber Mihna’s 1971 1800E coupe was one of 48,222 Volvos sold in the States that year.

As its chairman, George W. Romney made American Motors synonymous with practical compact cars. By the time he ran for the GOP presidential nomination as Michigan governor, AMC was hemorrhaging cash. Dick Teague, AMC’s design chief, had unveiled an impractical concept in Detroit two years earlier, in January 1966. The AMX concept was a two-seater with a plus-two “Ramble seat” in the hatchback compartment. “‘X’ stands for ‘Experimental,'” one executive told Teague, “and that means you aren’t going to build it.”

Robert Evans bought 202,000 shares of AMC later in 1966 and, in January 1967, replaced himself as chairman and Roy Abernethy as CEO with Roy D. Chapin, son of a Hudson Motor Car founder on January 9, 1967. Chapin promised six new models in 18 months. Teague was known for getting the most out of a single design, and made four cars out of two. The 1970 Gremlin was a shorter, hatchback ’70 Hornet, and the four-seat 1968 Javelin’s wheelbase was cut and the rear seat discarded to make the AMX. The Javelin launched in September 1967 with six-cylinder and V-8 engine options. The AMX, launched five months later, was named “the hairy little brother of the Javelin,” in the March 1968 issue of Motor Trend. The AMX came with V-8s only, of 290, 343 or 390 cubic inches.

“This is the most notable achievement of 1968 in the auto industry — two cars in one year,” Chapin avered in that issue. “The AMX has a completely different character from the Javelin. As a two-passenger car, it doesn’t have universal appeal. It’s aimed at a specialized market.”

AMC sold 55,124 ’68 Javelins and Javelin SSTs, and another 6725 of the AMX. AMC built 8293 in the second model year of the AMX. The dash plaque on Valenti Classics’ AMX lists it as #13585. With a $3297 base price, the ’69 AMX cost $32 more than a mid-level six-cylinder AMC Ambassador DPL with standard factory air. It was $664 to $785 more than a ’69 Javelin, though $1123-$1466 less than a C3 Corvette.

At the same time, a Japanese automaker was plotting its sports car invasion. While rival Toyota was selling practical, vanilla Corona and Corolla sedans, Nissan made its bones with the 1968-’69 Datsun 510, a car that earned a reputation as the “poor man’s BMW 2002,” thanks largely to Connecticut dealer/racer Bob Sharp and race instructor Bob Bondurant.

Edouard Seidler described the coming Datsun 240Z as a “revolutionary GT-type coupe,” in Motor Trend, December 1969, “presented as Datsun’s answer to the demand for high-performance personal cars in the United States.”

Datsun had imported its Fairlady/Sports 1500/Sports 1600/2000 from 1961, with the reliable MGB competitor sharing showrooms with the new Z, also called Fairlady in its home market. They overlapped in the U.S. in 1970.

The Z’s mechanical sophistication included a 151-hp overhead-cam six with an aluminum head and iron block, standard four-speed speed gearbox, reclining buckets, full carpeting, and gauges. At $3526 (1970 model), the 240Z was a runaway hit. Datsun had predicted 12,000 U.S. sales, but imported 16,215 as dealers reported a seven-month waiting list. The 240Z had become the first volume Japanese car that could command a dealer markup, especially in California.

Chuck Koch questioned the Z’s sports car credentials in his March 1971 Motor Trend road test: “Sure, it was comfortable, stylish, and fairly fast, but I had this gut-level feeling that maybe the 240Z was not a real sports car.” The Z needed the dealer-applied wheel-and-tire upgrades costing an extra $200, to quell understeer and offer acceptable handling.

Mihna’s Volvo 1800E feels like the oldest of these three, an early ’60s sports car with add-on updates mostly to meet federal standards. For tweed jacket sports car devotees, it exudes elegant old-world charm. Its blood-red front seats suggest Eames chairs. The injected four starts easily, and the four-speed gearbox with overdrive is tight, with short throws. The interior features lots of storage cubbies and manual lumbar support for both front seats.

Acceleration is small-bore progressive, and feels stronger as you row through the gears. At 50 mph in fourth gear, lift the throttle, push down on the right-hand steering stalk and a blue light on the dash indicates you’ve engaged the Laycock de Normanville overdrive. Body roll is considerable, though turn-in is sharp. The car has a lot of suspension travel. It feels like a fast and comfortable GT, with plenty of cornering grip.

“This was a car you could drive across the country at 70 mph, but hustle it around a twisty road at 50 mph, and you needed a nap after 20 miles,” says automotive public relations veteran Bob Austin, who joined Volvo Car’s consumer affairs department in Rockleigh, New Jersey, in 1970. Back then, he paid $2300 for an 1800E that had been water-damaged in the ship from Sweden.

Though American Motors tried to cast the AMX as a sports car, it drives more like a short-wheelbase ponycar, in turn a trimmed down ’60s-style musclecar. The driver sits on top of — not in — the bucket seat, the three-spoke steering wheel protruding from a shallow dashboard, forcing a driving style that’s more NASCAR than Italian roadster.

Valenti Classics’ ’69 doesn’t have the optional center console, so the space between the seats is spare, saving for the cool Hurst shifter. Colors and fake wood on the dash will remind you of your parents’ or grandparents’ kitchen. The long sculpted and vented hood extends off in the distance. The 315-hp, 390-cubic-inch V-8 sounds great, and starts easily. There’s a 5000-rpm redline and 4.11:1 gears, so fourth gear feels and sounds like second on the freeway. It has lots of torque and pulls away quickly, with a deep, loud induction noise. The car corners with V-8 authority and throttle influence, and there’s no notable body roll at speed, though the combination of unassisted steering and wide modern radials means you’ll need to develope some arm muscles. The brakes are grabby.

It’s no surprise that the Datsun 240Z feels the most familiar from the first time behind the wheel. Befitting a true sports car, you sit very low in the driver’s seat. The interior handle is unusually low on the door, near your left ankle. The clutch pedal is progressive, the spindly four-speed gearshift is notchy and positive. The Z has the stiffest suspension of these three. There’s some play in the wheel and soft throttle tip-in (since our drive, owner Comer has retuned the 2.4-liter six with new carb needles, retimed camshaft, etc.), but the car has pretty sharp moves. Contrary to the March ’71 MT article, understeer doesn’t feel excessive, and it feels willing to oversteer with a bit of judicious throttle application in the turns.

If the Volvo 1800E is an indication of where mid-century postwar sports cars were coming from and the American Motors AMX is where American sports cars met musclecars, the Datsun 240Z pointed to the sports car’s future. Balanced and reasonably comfortable, fast, stylish and more reliable than anything that came before it, the Z proved you could have fun every day on the way to work, until traffic congestion got out of hand.

The Z rendered unnecessary in a sports car the compromises that the 1800 and AMX made in favor of comfort and power.

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of Motor Trend Classic.

ASK THE MAN WHO HAS ONE FOR SALE

WHY I LIKE IT: “The sporty looks. It’s got a good, strong motor. The four-speed is a desirable thing. It didn’t have a lot of amenities, but it’s pretty reliable, pretty desirable.”

WHY IT’S COLLECTIBLE: It’s like a Camaro or Mustang from the era, though much more rare.

RESTORING/MAINTAINING: AMC’s 390 V-8 is a pretty strong engine available through most of the brand’s line in the late ’60s, and the AMX shares a lot of mechanical components with the Javelin. AMX-exclusive parts, especially for the interior, are hard to find, so look for one in good cosmetic shape.

WHY I LIKE IT: “When I was a kid, there was a fellow in the neighborhood who had a 240Z and I helped him work on it. It’s a cool sports car, and there wasn’t a lot of stuff around in the ’70s. My dad bought a 280ZX in ’81, and then a turbo 300ZX in ’84.”

WHY IT’S COLLECTIBLE: It was the first reasonably priced Japanese supercar, tough and durable, combining XKE- or Corvette-level performance with the newfound Japanese reliability. Attrition rate was high, so finding a good one is tough. The values jumped when Nissan offered remanufactured early Zs.

OUR TAKE

THEN: “Datsun has created a real sports GT which, with very few exceptions, combines good performance with the maximum of comfort…for a price of $3601, an admirable job indeed. And with Datsun dealers selling all the 240Zs they can get their hands on, the automobile should be around for a long time. Unless my intuition is wrong.” — Chuck Koch, Motor Trend, March 1971

NOW: Chuck’s intuition was wrong about one thing. The Datsun 240Z represented the sports car’s future, no “GT” qualifier necessary.

ASK THE WOMAN WHO OWNS ONE

Amber Mihna is a Certified Sommelier of Wine at General Beverage Sales Company, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Her wine-and-travel website is vinodivasworld.com. Her Volvo is named “Buttercup.”

WHY I LIKE IT: “I think it’s a very classy car. It fits my personality. I wasn’t looking for something that’s sporty or fast, or high-performance. I like the lines, the fins, the red leather interior.”

WHY IT’S COLLECTIBLE: “There aren’t a lot of originals out there,” Mihna says. The Standard Catalog of Imported Cars estimates Volvo built just 9414 1800E models from 1969-71, before replacing it with the even more rare 1800ES.

RESTORING/MAINTAINING: The 1800s came “pre-rusted” from Pressed Steel Company, jokes Volvo Cars of North America historian/public relations executive Dan Johnston, though engines are “bullet proof.” Examine headlamps, front fenders at the doors, rocker panels and taillamps. Parts are available
at classicvolvoparts.com.

BEWARE: Mihna’s car is missing one of two “limit” straps in the underbody, and such obscure parts are expensive to replace. She keeps hard to replace interior leather and plastics clean and out of the sun, to avoid cracking.

OUR TAKE

THEN: “Almost all the great cars of our time have embodied some great faults, things that you had to live with because they were outweighed by other offsetting brilliances. Perhaps this is why the 1800 has had such as sustained success, existing comfortably 10 years after its creation. Volvo designed out
all the hangups.” — Unattributed, Motor Trend, May 1970

NOW: The oldest design of our three alterna-sports cars also is the most classic. Even as a “relaxed GT,” the 1800E is a thoroughly enjoyable, engaging sports car.

1969 News and Reviews

One clings to a bygone era in defining the sports car as a small, lightweight open two-seater with minimum creature comfort balancing a maximum of driver engagement and agile handling. Sports cars, like everything else on the road, get more comfortable and sophisticated over time. Consider these three.Volvo president Gunnar Engellau killed off the P1900 fiber-glass two-seat convertible in 1956…